Taylor has followed that by stating his case on the field. He successfully defended three passes in the Steelers’ 38-28 win over the Chargers last Sunday. And Taylor held 6-5 Vincent Jackson, who can be a matchup nightmare because of his size, to four passes for 56 yards.

The previous week Taylor had done everything he could to keep the Bengals out of the end zone on their final drive by blanketing Cincinnati wide receiver Chad Ochocinco.

Today at his weekly news conference, Mike Tomlin gave Taylor his due — as well as the assignment of shadowing wide receiver Calvin Johnson Sunday when the Steelers visit the Detroit Lions.

“There’s no maybe about that,” Tomlin said. “Why hold that secret?”

Tomlin proceeded to talk about Taylor in glowing terms, which amounted to an assertion by the third-year coach that Taylor has reached the status of elite cornerback.

“He has a desire to be great, his actions match his words in that regard,” Tomlin said. “He prepares extremely hard every week. He’s as good a practice as we have.”

Taylor probably hasn’t gotten the league-wide recognition he deserves because it’s easy to get overshadowed on the Steelers’ defense. There’s also the matter of his low interception total – he has 11 career picks — something that can be attributed to hands that make it easy to see why Taylor plays defense and not on offense.

But Tomlin made it clear that Taylor is a Pro Bowl-caliber player even if he is still waiting for his first invitation trip to the NFL’s annual all-star game.

“He and I usually have funny exchanges early in the week when he comes and asks for those premium matchups,” Tomlin said. “That’s what the great ones at that position and the ones that desire to be great at that position, that’s the mentality that they have.”